NEW YORK -- The Conference Board said Monday that online advertised vacancies fell 131,000 to 3,117,000 in April. The loss follows drops of 6,600 in February and 100,000 in March, as well as larger drops of 500,000 in both December and January.
Over the past six months, advertised vacancies have dropped 30 percent.
“Based on the April numbers, we are not out of the woods, but the decline in labor demand is moderating,” said Gad Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board. “April and May are both months where business typically steps up their demand for workers. This year, that bounce may be more evident next month. With the April drop, the gap between labor demand (HWOL) and supply (unemployment) will widen further when the federal unemployment numbers are released this Friday. In March, there were 10 million more unemployed workers than advertised vacancies.”
New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and North Carolina saw the number of vacancies increase in April, but the nationwide picture remained negative. Online labor demand declined in all four regions.
By region, online advertised vacancies fell 47,400 in the West, 45,200 in the Midwest, and 19,100 in the South.
The Supply/Demand rate for the U.S. has been increasing and in March (the latest month for which unemployment numbers are available) was at 4.05, up from 3.72 in January, and has now surpassed 4 unemployed for every online advertised vacancy.
For more information, visit https://www.conference-board.org/economics/helpwantedOnline.cfm